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Sunday, January 18, 2015

Ken Griffey, Jr. Gets a New Job: The Baseball Historian’s Notes for the Week of January 18, 2015

The 2015 baseball season is nearly here. The reporting
dates of pitchers and catchers are literally just a month away. Once those
players start arriving in camps, things start happening rapidly. But until then,
there is still much work to be done around the majors.

Although many free agents have signed their new deals, there
are still a number of available
players who could be real difference makers, including highly coveted
pitchers Max
Scherzer and James
Shields. Waiting this long to sign in the offseason can be a risky move but
it can also pay off big time—for the players and the teams. What is certain is
that there will be a flurry of activity in the coming weeks, and until spring
training actually starts it will be difficult to get a true sense as to where each
team really stands.

Now, on to the notes for the week…

*Wrestling legend Randy “Macho Man” Savage is becoming a
member of the WWE Hall of Fame. The boisterous grappler, who passed away in
2011, was one of the best of all time but it wasn’t his first love. Before he
became famous, he was Randy
Poffo, a minor league player for the St. Louis Cardinals and Cincinnati
Reds in the early 1970s. This Sports Illustratedpiece details his
desire to become a professional ball player and some of his exploits on the
diamond before he moved on to the ring.

*The 1985 Cardinals were one of the most unique teams in
baseball history. Although they hit just 87 home runs as a team, they stole an
astounding 314 bases. Led by Hall-of-Fame manager Whitey Herzog,
they won 101 games in the regular season before succumbing to the Kansas City
Royals in seven games in the World Series. In this article
by the St. Louis Post-Dispatches’
Rick Hummel, the old skipper fondly recalls that squad being the best he ever
managed.

*Speaking of Hall-of-Fame managers, Sparky
Anderson is right up there with the greatest to ever lead a team. He could
also act a little and rock a suit so plaid it would make a frat house’s couch
blush. This 1979 episode
of WKRP in Cincinnati shows all those
talents rolled into one tight performance.

*Steve Garvey
enjoyed a lengthy career as a first basman who could hit and field—and boy did
he have great hair! He was also a prolific pitchman, including these vintage
commercials for SegaVision
televisions and Chevy,
which both ran in the late 1970s.

*Negro League star Herb
“Suitcase” Simpson has passed
away at the age of 94. Playing first base and outfield, his successful
career was altered by his military service and the segregation of the major
leagues.

Although he played three minor league seasons from 1952-54
and hit a combined .324, he was never given a chance at the big leagues, as
already being in his 30s and gradual integration of the majors prevented him from
being seen as a legitimate prospect. In later years he worked in maintenance
and served as an ambassador for the game and his Negro League brethren.

*Carl
Long, the man who broke the Carolina League color barrier, also recently passed
away at the age of 79. The former Negro Leaguer still holds the circuit’s
record for most RBIs in a season with the 111 he posted in 1956 with the
Kinston Eagles. Despite hitting .275 with 57 home runs over four minor league
seasons, the outfielder/third baseman never broke into the majors.

*Los Angeles Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully is a true
baseball treasure. Working for more than half a century, he has helped
countless fans fall in love with the game because of his butterscotch-smooth
voice and ability to describe the action. The
Transistor Kid was a 1964 article by Robert Creamer in Sports Illustrated that followed the legend in the earlier stages
of his career. Even then, he was as essential to baseball as a glove or ball,
and finding out about some unique aspects of his work (including an unusual way
to wish happy birthday to an umpire) makes one appreciate him all the more.

*Turns out New Hall-of-Famer Randy
Johnson isn’t the only Seattle Mariners legend to take up photography as a major
interest following his playing career. “The Kid,” Ken Griffey
Jr., has begun doing sideline shooting for college and professional
football games for ESPN. Simon Pollock has the story.
It’s an intriguing turn for the legendary former outfielder. It seems a safe bet
he will need to put his equipment down for a little bit next in the summer of
2016 when he should be enshrined in Cooperstown if everything goes the way most
expect.

*Warren Spahn
was one of the greatest left-handed pitchers in baseball history, compiling 363
victories in 21 major league seasons. Raised in Buffalo, New York, and spending
his career pitching in major hubs like Boston and Milwaukee, he wound up
settling in the small burgh of Hartshorne, Oklahoma. The Oklahoman’s Jenni Carlson wrote
about what led the southpaw to this place he ultimately called home.

*Here’s an announcement that should make all fans of
baseball history happy. The entire Ken Burns Baseball documentary series is now available for free on YouTube.
It’s a great opportunity for those who have never seen the terrific series
before, or for those wanting a second or third pass through.

*Bob Feller
was a dominant pitcher, winning 266 games during an 18-year career with the
Cleveland Indians. In his right arm, “Rapid Robert” was also know to possess
one of the best fastballs the game has ever seen, estimated at over 100 MPH
during its peak. Playing before the age of advanced measurement equipment,
there were attempts made to measure exactly how fast he threw, including this elaborate
test against a policeman’s motorcycle.

*Baseball History
Daily has the curious story
of Homer
Hausen, who was blacklisted from the Western league following a 1900
incident where he nearly killed catcher Bill Wilson
with a bat because of their competing affections for a woman.

Hausen got the girl, Wilson lived and both players
ultimately resumed professional careers. However, in a bizarre twist, Hausen
was himself attacked with a bat during a game just a few years later. Another tremendous
find by BHD.

*Left-hander Bill Lee
was known as much for his personality as his hurling ability during his 14
years in the majors with the Boston Red Sox and Montreal Expos. This brief set of clips from
his younger days is just as eclectic as the southpaw, and definitely worth a
look!